Online Highscore Board?

[Ikonz101]

Is there a way to have a online highscore board? You have a points system then after you lose or the game is over you can submit your score to a online highscore table?

Thank You
Ikonz101

[Candle]

Not at this time.
Maybe some thing GM will add later on.

[Ikonz101]

Thats to bad but thank you for the response.

Ikonz101

[Ikonz101]

Instead of having the score online is there a way to have a highscore board within the game itself?

Ikonz101

[Lyberodoggy]

Yes!
http://adventuremaker.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3580&highlight=scoreboard

I was trying to implement online scoreboards, but except for the external application it would need to upload the scores, it would also need a server to host them

[Ikonz101]

This is great news!! How hard is it to implement the online feature?

Thank You
Ikonz101

[reneuend]

Probably the easiest way (without setting it up so you can connect to a database and submit a query) would be to FTP an html formatted file with the score to your directory on your account at the host server. The ftp agent would have to be set up and you would use a command line command to upload the score. If you can make a call to Window's FTP command, then this would work. It might have to be done as a plugin.

(sorry, just thinking outloud)

[Lyberodoggy]

I was thinking more of an external app that would
A) Read the scoreboard.ini
B) transmit the data to the server
C) recieve response


Or
A) Read scoreboard.ini
B) Read database (could be in html)
C) Compare data
D) Update the database if needed

[reneuend]

There's a dozen ways to do it. The coolest way would be a plugin!


Here is what I was thinking:

1. add the score to an html file from the game and save it to the external directory. In this example, I'm using score.html.

2. use this command in AM to launch an ftp script:

Code: Select all

Action.OpenFile "sendscore.bat"

sendscore.bat
-------------------
open <ftp.domain.com>
<username>
<password>
cd public_html
put score.html
disconnect

[mercedes]

Action.OpenFile "sendscore.bat"

I was under the impression that you could only open .exe files ..?

[reneuend]

nope! it works with scripts also!

[mercedes]

What other kinds of files can we open using open file command...? Do u know..


I was sure I asked this before and i was told only .exe files...Good news to know..Thanks!~..

[Ikonz101]

A plugin would probably work best for me cause I am completely lost on how to achieve this. Thank you for the explanation though much appreciated.

Ikonz101

[reneuend]

Hi Mercedes - Anything that can be launched is fair game. So, if you can launch it from the OS, then it will work.

Hey Ikonz101 - I wish I had time to build this plugin, but I have a list of things that I"m working on, including a plugin I finished a couple months ago but still needs a demo. I'll put it on my list, but it will be awhile.

[Ikonz101]

I was also thinking about having a highscore system where you get a random code generated after each level (that totals your score). Then you input that random code into the website to present your score. Would this be complicated? Its alright reneuend I understand having a lot to do.

Ikonz101

[reneuend]

So the random code would be a password? In that case, it wouldn't be random but based on an algorithm.

[Lyberodoggy]

There's a dozen ways to do it. The coolest way would be a plugin!


Here is what I was thinking:

1. add the score to an html file from the game and save it to the external directory. In this example, I'm using score.html.

2. use this command in AM to launch an ftp script:

Code: Select all

Action.OpenFile "sendscore.bat"

sendscore.bat
-------------------
open <ftp.domain.com>
<username>
<password>
cd public_html
put score.html
disconnect

Didn't know you could do that with dos (I mean opening an ftp connection etc)
I also don't know if opening the batch with the OpenFile command would run it or open it in edit mode with notepad...

[reneuend]

I've run scripts from AM before.
This code will work as long as you have an ftp server on your host site.

[Lyberodoggy]

That's great since I found this: http://www.drivehq.com/ftp/
Also your script needs a tiny correction (one "ftp" at the start and one "bye" at the end)

Code: Select all

ftp
open <ftp.domain.com>
<username>
<password>
cd public_html
put score.html
disconnect
bye

[reneuend]

Thank you for the correction, doggy.

I tested it against my host site and it works. Now the only other issue would be securing the password!

So, we're back to using an executable! Oh well, it was fun anyway.

[Ikonz101]

So basically this is all you would need to make a high score board online?

Ikonz101

[reneuend]

From AM in the advanced tab of the frame where you want to register the score, You would build an html document with the score in it, then save it to disk. After this, you would add the call to run the ftp script as shown above.

Code: Select all

Action.OpenFile "sendscore.bat"

In my test, I used a hotspot, when I clicked on the hotspot it launched the ftp script and put an existing file on my host site. I didn't build the document, but that is what I would do.

[Ikonz101]

Yeah I am still confused about this. Sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. I will have to learn more about FTP and HTML and how to implement them unless a plugin is made to do all this. Thank you for telling me how this would be done though.

Ikonz101

[Lyberodoggy]

Thank you for the correction, doggy.

I tested it against my host site and it works. Now the only other issue would be securing the password!

So, we're back to using an executable! Oh well, it was fun anyway.

What I 'd do to secure the main pass would be to add a sub account on my FTP

Also, if we need to make it an exe, it's no problem since most languages support cmd commands. So we'd just have to copy/paste the bat script into a simple code.

Example in java:

Code: Select all

public class FTPforAM{
 public static void main(String args[]){
  Process ls_proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("ftp\nopen <ftp.domain.com>\n<username>\n<password>\ncd public_html\nput score.html\ndisconnect\nbye");
 }
}

[Ikonz101]

How would I create the html document with the score in it? I am going to try the drivehq ftp site to test this out.

Thank You
Ikonz101

P.S. This is a very interesting prospect for AM. Especially if it worked for iPhone games as well

[reneuend]

I'm not sitting where I can look up the command, but there is an AM command to write oiutput to a file. I would just write line by line the html information and then add the score variable in the output....I'll show you later when I can.

[Lyberodoggy]

I don't think you can do that. Well you could, but you 'd have a "=" at the end of each line.
What do I mean:
The syntax of AM's file output command is this
WriteINI "filename",section,key,value

Were you can replace section and key with any number or phrase. So we could write what we wish in the key, but then again we would need a value. Else if we place the commands in the value argument, a key will be needed to be written before the value in the file. So it's practically impossible using AM's file creation system.

[reneuend]

uhmmm....that's right!
Well, I opened my big mouth on this, so I'll find a way.